Children's programming on NBC: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:13, 20 February 2011

Revision as of 06:56, 20 February 2011

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==1947-1956==

In 1947, NBC's first major children's series was ''[[Howdy Doody]]'', one of the era's first breakthrough television shows. The series, which ran for 13 years, featured a frecklefaced [[marionette]] and a myriad of other characters and hosted by [[Buffalo Bob Smith|"Buffalo" Bob Smith]]. Howdy Doody spent most of its run on weekday afternoons also Saturday morning first televised on NBC the [[Little League World Series]] in [[1949 Little League World Series|1949]] under [[Meet The Press]] and [[Today (NBC program)|Today]] in 1952.

==1956-1992==

In 1956, NBC abandoned the children's programming lineup on weekday afternoons, relegating the lineup to [[Saturday morning cartoon|Saturdays]] only with ''Howdy Doody'' as their marquee franchise for the series' remaining four years. From the mid-1960s until 1992, the bulk of NBC's children's programming were derived from theatrical shorts like ''[[The Pink Panther Show]]'' and ''[[Looney Tunes]]'', reruns of popular television series like ''[[The Flintstones]]'' and ''[[The Jetsons]]'', foreign acquisitions like ''[[Astro Boy]]'', ''[[Star of the Giants]]'', [[Samurai Giants]] and ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'', original animated series (most notably ''[[The Smurfs (1981 TV series)|The Smurfs]]'', [[Captain (manga)|Captain]]'' and ''[[Alvin and the Chipmunks]]'' in the 1980s), cartoon adaptations of [[The Gary Coleman Show|Gary Coleman]], [[Mister T (TV series)|Mr. T]], ''[[It's Punky Brewster|Punky Brewster]]'', ''[[ALF (TV series)|ALF]]'' and ''[[Star Trek]]'', and original live-action series including ''[[The Banana Splits]]'', ''[[The Bugaloos]]'', and ''[[H.R. Pufnstuf]]''.

===See also===

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*''[[Big John, Little John]]'' (1976–1977)

*''[[Camp Candy]]'' (1989–1990)

*''[[Captain (manga)|Captain]]'' (1984-1986)

*''[[Captain N: The Game Master]]'' (1989–1992)

*''[[Chip and Pepper's Cartoon Madness]]'' (1991–1992)

*''[[Dokaben]]'' (1977-1992)

*''[[Dr. Slump]]'' (1982-1987; 1998-2000)

*''[[Fraggle Rock (animated TV series)|Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series]]'' (1987–1988)

*''[[The Gary Coleman Show]]'' (1982–1983)

*''[[The Gummi Bears]]'' (1985–1989)

*''[[Hello! Sandybell]]'' (1982-1983)

*''[[I'm Telling!]]'' (1987–1988)

*''[[It's Punky Brewster (TV series)|It's Punky Brewster]]'' (1985–1987)

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*''[[Kid 'n Play]]'' (1990–1991)

*''[[Kidd Video]]'' (1984–1987)

*''[[Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV]]'' (1983-1984)

*''[[Kissyfur]]'' (1986-1987)

*''[[Land of the Lost (1974 TV series)|Land of the Lost]]'' (1974–1977)

*''[[Lalabel, The Magical Girl]]'' (1981-1982)

*''[[Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos]]'' (1987-1988)

*''[[Machine Robo: Battle Hackers]]'' (1988-1989)

*''[[Mazinger Z]]'' (1973-1975; 1984-1986)

*''[[Nobody's Boy Remi]]'' (1978-1979)

*''[[The New Adventures of Flash Gordon]]'' (1979–1980)

*''[[The New Archie and Sabrina Hour]]'' (1977)

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*''[[The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show]]'' (1961–1964; 1981–1982)

*''[[The Roman Holidays]]'' (1972)

*''[[Star of the Giants]]'' (1969-1972)

*''[[The Ruff and Reddy Show]]'' (1957–1958)

*''[[The Smurfs (1981 TV series)|The Smurfs]]'' (1981–1990)

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*''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series]]'' (1973–1975)

*''[[Super Mario World (TV series)|Super Mario World]]'' (1991–1992)

*''[[Touch (manga)|Touch]]'' (1986-1988)

*''[[Yo Yogi!]]'' (1991-1992)

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==TNBC (1992-2002)==

NBC abandoned the animated series in August 1992 in favor of a Saturday edition of ''[[Weekend Today|Today]]'' and more live-action series under the name [[Teen NBC|TNBC]] (''Teen NBC''). Most of the series on the TNBC lineup were series produced by [[Peter Engel (TV producer)|Peter Engel]] such as ''[[City Guys]]'', ''[[Hang Time (TV series)|Hang Time]]'', ''[[California Dreams]]'', ''[[One World (TV series)|One World]]'' and the ''Saved by the Bell'' spinoff, ''[[Saved by the Bell: The New Class]]'' also include ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' and ''[[Digimon]]''.<ref name="DiscoveryKids">{{cite news|url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117856766.html?categoryid=1201&cs=1&query=|title=Discovery set to kid around with Peacock|date=December 4, 2001|work=Variety|accessdate=2009-08-13 | first=Paula | last=Bernstein}}</ref> ''NBA Inside Stuff'' was also a part of the TNBC lineup during the duration of the NBA season. Even though the educational content was minimal to nonexistent, even detrimental, NBC labeled all the live-action shows with an E/I rating.

===TNBC lineup history===

{| width="100%" border="2"

|-

! Season!!10:00 AM!!10:30 AM!!11:00 AM!!11:30 AM!!12:00 PM!!12:30 PM!!1:00 PM

|-

| One (1993-1994)||''[[Name Your Adventure]]''||''[[Running the Halls]]''||''[[California Dreams]]''||''[[NBA Inside Stuff]]''||''[[none]]''

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| Six (1998-1999)||''[[Saved by the Bell: The New Class]]''||''[[Hang Time (TV series)|Hang Time]]''||''[[One World (TV series)|One World]]''||''[[City Guys]]''||''[[Hang Time (TV series)|Hang Time]]''

|-

| Seven (1999-2000)||''[[Saved by the Bell: The New Class]]''||''[[Hang Time (TV series)|Hang Time]]''||''[[City Guys]]''||''[[One World (TV series)|One World]]''||''[[City Guys]]''||''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''||''[[Digimon]]''

|-

| Eight (2000-2001)||''[[City Guys]]''||''[[Hang Time (TV series)|Hang Time]]''||''[[Just Deal]]''||''[[One World (TV series)|One World]]''||''[[City Guys]]''||''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''||''[[Digimon]]''

|-

| Nine (2001-2002)||''[[City Guys]]''||''[[All About Us (TV series)|All About Us]]''||''[[Just Deal]]''||''[[City Guys]]''||''[[Sk8 (TV series)|Sk8]]''||''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''||''[[Digimon]]''

|-

|}

==Discovery Kids on NBC (2002-2006)==

On January 6, 2002, NBC began a deal with [[Discovery Communications|Discovery Communications']] [[Discovery Kids]] channel to air their original FCC-mandated educational programming under the banner [[Discovery Kids on NBC]].<ref name="DiscoveryKids"/> The schedule originally consisted of only live-action series, including a kid-themed version of ''[[Trading Spaces]]'' and [[J. D. Roth]]'s Emmy-nominated reality game show ''[[Endurance (TV series)|Endurace]]'', but later expanded to include some animated series such as ''[[Kenny the Shark]]'', ''[[Tutenstein]]'', ''[[Major (manga)|Major]]'', ''[[Machine Robo Rescue]]'', ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure]]'', ''[[Beyblade]]'', ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' and ''[[Time Warp Trio]]''. This was a time-lease agreement for NBC to provide E/I-compliant programming to their affiliates rather than having any network input or production.

==qubo (2006-present)==

In May 2006, in order to replace the Discovery Kids Saturday Morning block, NBC announced plans to launch a new children's block on Saturday mornings starting in September 2006 as part of the ''[[qubo]]'' endeavor teaming parent company NBC Universal with [[Ion Media Networks]], [[Scholastic Press]], [[Classic Media]] and [[Corus Entertainment]]'s [[Nelvana]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002198189 |title=Discovery, NBC to End Sat. Kids Block |first=Anthony |last=Crupi |work=Mediaweek |date=2006-03-16 |accessdate=2008-03-25 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080207021249/http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002198189 <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate = 2008-02-07}}</ref> Qubo will include blocks to air on NBC, [[Telemundo]] (the Spanish-language network owned by NBC Universal), and Ion Media Networks's [[Ion Television]], as well as a 24/7 digital broadcast kids channel, video on demand services and a branded website.

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===Notable programming===

On Saturday, September 9, 2006, NBC started airing the following qubo programs: ''[[VeggieTales]]'', ''[[Dragon (TV series)|Dragon]]'', ''VeggieTales Presents: [[3-2-1 Penguins!]]'', ''[[Babar (TV series)|Babar]]'', ''[[Jane and the Dragon (TV series)|Jane and the Dragon]]'', and ''[[Jacob Two-Two (TV series)|Jacob Two-Two]]'', and ''[[Postman Pat]]''. Initially, the ''VeggieTales'' broadcasts did not feature the religious content that appears on the videos before and after the main feature, since the block is designed to educate all viewers with ''[[Machine Robo Rescue]]'', ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure]]'', ''[[Beyblade Metal Fusion]]'' and ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''. This has drawn criticism for the block and NBC in particular from the conservative watchdog group [[Parents Television Council]], as well as ''VeggieTales'' co-creator [[Phil Vischer]], who claims that he was unaware of the intent to edit out religious content when the program was acquired for qubo.<ref>{{Cite news

| last = Associated Press | date = 22 September 2006 | year = 2006 | title = God references quashed; 'VeggieTales creator steamed

| periodical = CNN.com | series = Entertainment News | place = Los Angeles, California, United States | publisher = CNN

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===Scheduling issues===

Not all shows are seen on all stations. During the NBC block, the programming might be delayed or pre-empted because of local affiliates schedules, or delayed by the network to show sporting events such as [[LittleThe LeagueChampionships, WorldWimbledon|Wimbledon]], Series[[French Open|The French Open]], and the [[USGA]]'s [[U.S. Open (golf)|U.S. Open]]. As with all Saturday morning programming it is advisable to check local listings for showtimes. Usually when there's a delay, a special notice is shown during commercial breaks to note the delays, as part of E/I compliance.

==References==